“From the bench it
looked like it was a sending-off and the referee had no option. We needed calm and intelligence to play against 10 men. This is our first win for some time against our rivals. I hope it gives us belief and confidence to transfer that into more games.”

Arsenal received four yellow cards, as Song, captain Cesc Fabregas, Denilson and Johan Djourou were punished for rash challenges. Wenger, though, was pleased with his team’s discipline.

“It was important not to get any sending-offs,” he said. “I wanted the players to focus on playing football, not just defending our advantage, to be positive. We’ve matured in negotiating the difficulties of a game, keeping the ball and being patient. We dominated.”

Mancini was convinced his City team would have collected three points if Boyata had not been sent off, but is confident they can bounce back.

“The sending-off changed everything,” he said. “If it had been 11 against 11, we would have won. I do not agree with the referee, I didn’t like the referee today. Now, we must start again in the next game and start winning again.”

Fabregas disagreed with Mancini by saying: “Even if they were 15 and we were 11 we would still go and win. It was very difficult to stop us today.”